I cant believe 5 months has gone by already. Seems like I was just at Affiliate Summit East Boston. Ohh well. What’s important is that Affiliate Summit West is coming up (Jan 11-13) in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Convert2Media will be there but will not be boothing. As a matter of fact, if we ever do booth you can probably count on me not making that event. I find it to be an incredibly retarded idea but I understand why a lot of companies do it. To each their own it’s just not our style.
If you would like to schedule a meet-up then make sure you hit up your affiliate manager in the next few days. As for parties I dont know where we will be for sure but I do know that we will be taking Advaliant up on the invitation to theirs. Geofferson and Peter Bordes just plain kick ass. Nuff said. Besides Advaliant has been a huge help in the growth of C2M. Thanks out to Copeac also for their invitation we hope to make that one as well. CX Digital, you are lagging behind!
One more thing is that C2M has sponsored 200 Wickedfire t-shirts as well. We would like to thank Jon the owner of Wickedfire for the opportunity, Nickycakes for putting the voting poll together for the design and of course the Wickedfire community for their participation in the poll and supporting the idea! We will be handing those out to Wickedfire members so if you are not a member you had better get your ass over there and join up.
See ya there!
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As the year comes to an end we would like to reflect back on the last 8 months since the launch of Convert2Media and send a GIANT thank you to publishers and shout outs we have received. It’s the publishers and supporters of Convert2Media that keep us going and will propel us into the coming year with a bang!
Thank you all from behalf of Michael, Ryan, Steve and myself. We only hope to exceed expectations in 2009!
NickyCakes.com – Affiliate Run Affiliate Networks – Thank you for the honest and stellar write up Nick. I was able to meet you in Boston earlier in August at Affiliate Summit and have been a reader of your blog since you started. I would also like to thank you on behalf of Convert2Media for the Boston Red Sox tickets you gave us. We enjoyed one of the best baseball games of the year as well as the culture and feeling of going to that game. It was blast. Thanks a ton Nick!
JonathanVolk.com – Convert2Media Review – Thank you Jonathan for the honest and awesome review. Convert2Media has been a follower of your blog for the last year and have enjoyed every post. On top of your blog we would like to extend our hands and thank you for your business. We hope to make 2009 even better!
ZacJohnson.com – From Affiliate To Affiliate Network – Thank You Zac for the kick ass opportunity to be the first guest poster on your blog. Your blog has been followed as well for quite awhile by Convert2Media. We would all like to extend our hands and thank you for your stellar business as a publisher as well! It was great meeting you at Adtech NYC for some face time and look forward to seeing you again at ASW Vegas.
Bryn.me – Props To Convert2Media – Hey Bryn. Thank you for the outstanding shout out. Everyone at Convert2Media would like to extend a warm thank you for your outstanding write up and business. We hope to propel each other even further in 2009 bud!
PPC.bz – Get Money + Get Paid – Big shout out to Barman and Zero for the props to Convert2Media. If your blog was a religion, that would make me your first disciple. Thanks for the shout-outs and all the support in the Convert2Media Chatroom and Wickedfire!
IanFernando.com – Convert2Media – Thank you Ian for the opportunity to be featured on your Affiliate Network Review Directory AffPinions! Convert2Media would like let you know that we follow your blog as well bud. It was great to meet you at Adtech NYC and we look forward to meeting with you again at ASW Vegas.
Sohantanna.com – Something You Have To Read – Thank you Sohan for the stellar write up. We would like to extend a warm thank you as well for your business with Convert2Media. We would also like to thank you for your continued support promoting Convert2Media in various forums and blogs online. Thanks bud!
CashTactics.net – Thank You Convert2Media – Hey Kris! Convert2media would like to thank you for the outstanding exposure and contests you have done. We would also like to thank you and Andrew for your support as publishers with Convert2Media. We look forward to meeting you and Andrew at ASW Vegas bud!
TeachMeToMakeMoneyOnline.com – Good Experience With Convert2Media – Thank you Vijay for the outstanding review and write up! We look forward to continued business together in 2009! We would like to extend all of our hands here and give a giant thank you for your support.
NickThrolson.com – Convert2Media – Thank you Nick for the kickass write up! We look forward to doing business with you in 2009 and growing our relationship! Thanks a ton bud!
DaveManuel.com – Convert2Media Review – Thank you for stellar write up Dave! Convert2media looks forward to continued business and strengthening our relationship in the upcoming year. Thanks Man!
Thank you to all the publishers and publicists of Convert2Media.
Truly, we would not be where we are or growing at the rate we are without your support. We appreciate each and every one of you! To everyone that supports Convert2Media with signatures, write ups, referrals, shout outs, banners and everything else, we thank you! If we missed you, we apologize. By all means send in your support and we will add it!
Merry Christmas to all,
Convert2Media
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- 23
- Dec
- 2008
PreQualifying Clicks – Making Those Social Dollars Count
Posted by: Ruck under Affiliates
This really goes in hand with any type of advertising you may do but with the recent Google slaps and the utter hate they are displaying for certain offers/markets affilites are scrambling to find alternative sources of advertising. I’ve personally been preaching this since I come online but if you find yourself dependent on one source of advertising you are playing a very dangerous game.
Prequalifying your ads is a tricky tactic used to let the prospect have an idea of what they are getting ready to visit. It’s tricky in a sense that using this may lower your CTR and with search engine advertising this is a huge factor that plays in to whether your ad will run and how much it’s ultimately going to cost you. On the other hand when you prequalify your ads you are strengthening the chance for a better return on investment.
I’m going to leave Search Engine advertising out of this segment and focus solely on alternative forms of advertising. Social advertising on Myspace and Facebook is a different beast altogether. Even they seem to be putting the leashes on certain forms of ads and offers. When they do this you know that tougher times are on the horizon. So what do you do? Where do you go?
One of the alternatives to Myspace and Facebook is to advertise thru services such as Social Media and Loud Social. Basically they allow you to advertise in social networks on app pages. This is even different than there standard platforms of advertising and you have to take a closer look at this to make it work for you. Much like Google Content Network Advertising you are “interrupting” people with this form of advertising. Another factor to include is the actual placements with ads. I know with Social Media that any sort of “click here” type text is going to give you a lot of tirekickers.
You have to realize that most people are not going to be as web savvy as a marketer. Overlooking this can have drastic negative effects on campaigns. I know from experience. Let’s do a simple scenario for an ad that doesn’t prequalify a prospect and one that does.
- Free Loreal Makeup
- Loreal Is Giving Out Free Makeup Samples
- Click Here To See If You Qualify
This is an ad that will most likely get a lot of clicks. However if you were promoting a Loreal Makeup Email Submit offer then you have just shot yourself in the foot (most likely). A lot of people who click that will probably think they are still trying to install the application that you are advertising on. Others that actually are interested in the ad are going to click over and see that the offer is requesting information that they may not to give out. So let’s prequalify them a bit:
- Free Loreal Makeup
- Loreal Is Giving Out Free Makeup Samples
- Enter Your Email To See If You Qualify
Not much has changed in this ad from the looks right. However you will notice now that we have let them know before even clicking the ad that they are going to have to enter their email to see if they qualify. By writing ads this way you are going to reduce the amount of tirekickers.
When using alternative sources of advertising such as Social Media Services, 2nd tier search engines and anything else really you can drastically reduce the amount of crap clicks by telling people specifically in your ads what to expect. Sure you may not get the volume you once were but then again, what good is volume when it dont convert?
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This post may strike a nerve or two…and that’s the point. Over the last few months with the growth of C2M I have witnessed a variety of different types of affiliates. With the interaction of the Affiliate Forum and even today’s launch of the Affiliate Chatroom along with Moderating the infamous WickedFire Forum I have had the opportunity to really talk with a ton of affiliates. I would like the opportunity to come forward and address a few things that I have seen and seem to have a twisted outlook among our publishers.
First – We are not trying to make you a better marketer. We are trying to make you a better business person. Matter of fact, there are tons of conversations daily between the managers of C2M that wont even help our bottom line. We know this, we expected this. You dont see many networks helping other affiliates that are not even publishers with them. We try our best to do just that. Affiliate training and chat is open for any entrepreneur. Of course it would please us best if you were working with us, but dont think that just because you dont, that you wont receive some input. Hell, you may not even be a cpa marketer at all. One of our goals is to build better business men/women. Sometimes cpa marketing just isnt for everyone. We know that, we get it. You are not going to be turned down for help if you know absolutely nothing. You should however know that registered publishers ARE first priority. Sorry, we are trying to run a business here.
Second – Close Minded Affiliates. This is one the irks me. Successful affiliates have caught on to the fact that we are going above and beyond most affiliate network provided support. These are the types of affiliates that come in “for the gold” so to speak. We see that. We recognize it. We know the difference between topspinners and aspiring publishers. However, there are successful affiliates that come with a serious swagger. These are the publishers that know what it takes in this business and utilize us to grow and improve for “the right reasons” and not use us as a one-stop goldmine. Some affiliates think that our sole purpose is to “serve” them. You cannot be any further from the truth. If we closed the doors today, we would be just fine. Our sole purpose is to build better business men/women, not to help you game the system.
You can tell right away who takes their business serious and who doesnt. The ones who are in it for the quick buck are the hardest to help. No matter how many tips you give them, 99% of them will just sit on it. It’s a waste of time on both parts. Look deep inside and see if you are the type that comes to your manager everyday and asks what the hot offer is. Chances are if you are this type then you definitely are not committing yourself to what you have already been told yesterday. We dont add offers to just add offers. We add offers that we either know or will develop and help affiliates publish.
Third – Limits – This is by far the biggest and most frustrating quirk to see. Not a day goes by that I dont hear about a google slap or a landing page getting jacked. Good god. If you are limiting yourself to Google you are in serious trouble. It may not have happened yet but somewhere along the line you will probably get hit with some sort of devastating setback. Not a day goes by I hear people griping about Facebook. Sure there is money there but let me ask you something for a second. While you sit there and resubmit ads all day I will be out there testing another 10 sources of advertising. When it’s all said and done you are going to have a few ads running (if any) and I am going to add another few sources of advertising to my arsenal. Chances are I am going to have WAY more leniency too. This allows me to ramp up and expand into other campaigns very quickly.
Here’s the worst kicker. You know an offer that works. Google slaps you, Facebook doesnt approve your ads, and Myspace does not give you impressions. What do you do? From the majority of conversations I have had marketers would rather sit there all day and resubmit ads knowing that when they get that one thru they will make their paycheck that day.
Guys/gals you are leading a dangerous business here. I know because I have done it. Sure by throwing yourself out there into new areas you are going to have to sacrifice and live below your means. That is not a position ANYONE wants to be especially if you have made money in the past. Complacency should be a deadly sin. It is in my business book. You get comfortable with a platform. You think you know everything about the platform and you can game the system. All games come to an end. The question is will you still be standing when your game ends?
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C2M has added another conversation and assistance tool. Sometimes you can only handle so many IM’s, PM’s, emails and phonecalls. Often times a lot of what is said or given out could have been done in mass fashion and saved us as well as publishers a lot of time. For the time being we would like to introduce an IRC channel that will allow to stay logged in all the time and be updated with C2M news, changes, offer info and of course marketing tips!
All you need to do is download a copy of mIRC. It has a trial version but dont worry, you dont ever have to buy it. It is of course like $20 or something after the trial and I would suggest getting it to support them but it is not necessary. If you are unfamiliar with IRC then there is an excellent tutorial you can read here. If you still have problems, holler at me or your affiliate manager on AIM and we will help ya get setup. After you are setup just type in #c2m into channels and join.
This is an excellent opportunity to have a constant stream of contact. New offers come in all the time and new methods of marketing are always popping up. We hope that by having a chatroom such as this, you as a publisher get the advantage of using all this before the competition. It’s Saturday so I will be in and out of the room thru the day. Peace.
Convert2Media channel–> #c2m server is –> irc.freenode.net
